Nepal marks 1st conquest of Everest sans bottled oxygen

Kathmandu, April 19: Nepal’s government has honored two climbers who were the first to scale Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen 40 years ago.

Minister for tourism Rabindra Adhikari praised the climbers at a ceremony Thursday in the capital, Kathmandu.

Italian Reinhold Messner and Austrian Peter Habeler reached the summit without the use of supplementary oxygen, while others on their team used bottled oxygen. Until then, all climbers carried oxygen cylinders to aid them at high altitudes where oxygen levels are low.

Since Everest was first scaled in 1953, thousands of climbers have reached the summit and hundreds more make an attempt every year.

This year nearly 350 foreign climbers have already been issued climbing permits. Most climbers continue to use supplementary oxygen.

Eight foreign mountaineers of the same expedition were also honoured as a gesture of marking the 40th anniversary of their ascent of the world’s highest mountain peak.

Eight surviving members from the 12- member team arrived in Nepal together for the first time for the event.

“Decades ago, climbing mountain was all about adventure as it was without fixed schedules and no use of high- end, equipment and technology. Now, it’s more like a tourism activity rather than mountaineering, it has been quiet easy,” Messner, one of the mountaineers, told media.